Collaboration systems allow users to collaborate with each other. Such collaboration systems comprise collaboration server components and client components. A collaboration server component of a collaboration system receives and stores content items generated by users. Other users can use the client components of the collaboration system to access content items stored by collaboration server components of the collaboration system. In this way, the users can create and access content items.
Various types of content items can be stored and accessed by collaboration systems. Example types of content items include e-mail messages, calendar appointments, contacts, task list items, instant messenger conversation logs, word processor documents, spreadsheet documents, audio documents, video documents, and other types of content items.
In some collaboration systems, the collaboration server components of the collaboration systems and the client components of the collaboration systems communicate with each other using a proprietary protocol. A proprietary protocol is a communications protocol that is controlled by one or more entities, to the exclusion of others. In other words, a proprietary protocol is not an open protocol. Because the collaboration server components of such a collaboration system and the client components of the collaboration system communicate with each other using a proprietary protocol, other software developers cannot freely develop new client components that communicate with the collaboration server components of the collaboration system. As a result, access to content items stored by such collaboration systems is restricted.